Nicole Collins
For over 35 years, Nicole Collins’ (she/her) art practice has engaged deeply with materials, collaborating with their ability to reflect meaning. Focusing on the effect and subsequent affect, of time, memory, accumulation, force, and heat on visceral and ephemeral materials including wax, charcoal, plants, oils and metals, through painting, drawing, digital reproduction, installation,intervention, video, and sound, works have engaged with themes of mortality, grief, ephemerality, decreation, and resilience.
Collins completed the BFA Hons in Fine Art at University ofGuelph (1988) and the Master of Visual Studies at University of Toronto (2009)
Since 1994 she has exhibited extensively with commercial galleries as well as solo exhibitions including: Bakuroyokoyama Gallery Tokyo (2023); The Koffler Gallery (2018); The Art Gallery of Ontario (2013); The University of Waterloo Art Gallery (2013); The Embassy of Canada in Tokyo (2001) and group exhibitions in Toronto, Hamilton, St. Johns, New York, Miami, London and Zurich. Her work has been featured in magazines (print and online), new spapers and books including the major survey Abstract Painting in Canada (Roald Nasgaard) and the 3rd edition of A Concise History of Canadian Painting (Dennis Reid).
Collins is Associate Professor of Material and Visual Culture in the Drawing & Painting program at the Ontario College of Art & Design University(OCADU). Her studio practice includes research into local natural pigment and binder sources and their applications to art practice. Sustainable Paint Practices is an interdisciplinary studio-based course that introduces students to alternative painting methods drawing on historical methods (oil, egg tempera, encaustic,silverpoint) to current practices in local plant-based and mineral colour sources.
Instagram: @nicolecollinsartist
See Watercolour/ Encaustic workshop by Nicole!
Julia Rose Sutherland
(She/They) is a storyteller, interdisciplinary artist, and assistant professor at OCAD University in Tkaronto, Canada. She is a half-settler and half-Indigenous and is a citizen of the Mi’kmaq (Metepenagiag Nation).
Sutherland earned their MFA in studio arts (Interdisciplinary) from the University at Buffalo (2019) and a BFA (craft and new media) from Alberta College of Art + Design (2013). With a foundation in craft, new media, and sculpture, Sutherland's work spans diverse media and thematic concerns, exploring identity, cultural memory, and the politics of representation.
Notable solo exhibitions include “NISSING” at The New Gallery in Calgary (2023-24), “TIME OF ACQUIRING LEARNING” at The New Gallery (2022), “Flesh Economics” (after hours) WAAP Gallery (2020) and “Ango'tg” at CEPA Gallery in Buffalo (2019). Their work has also been featured in high-profile group exhibitions such as “In Parallel” at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (2023), “LAND BACK” at the Contemporary Native Art Biennial in Montreal (2022), and “Bodies In Conflict” at The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (2021).
Sutherland's art has been included in key exhibitions like “DesignTO Festival, Future Matters” (2024), “Art Toronto” (2023 & 2021, “In parallel” at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (2023), “Bodies In Conflict,” The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (2021) and “Touching Earth and Sky.” Mackenzie Gallery, Regina, SK (2021). She has also participated in international exhibitions and performances, including “I am my body, I am my memory” in Paris (2020), “Brought to Light: The Epidemic of Violence against Native and Indigenous Women.” at K Art, Buffalo, NY (2021) and “All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy,” BEMIS Centre, Omaha (2021).
Her contributions have been recognized through several awards and grants, including the Art Rights Truth: Conversations with Reports_ Collaboration with the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR). University of York, the Canada Council for the Arts Grant for Small-Scale Activities (2024 and 2021) and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (2021). Sutherland was recently an artist-in-residence at Headlands Center for the Arts (2024) and has previously held residencies at the BEMIS Center for Contemporary Arts (2021), Women’s Center of Calgary AIR (2020), Tsinghua University in Beijing (2018) and Headland Center for the Arts (2024).
Sutherland’s works have been featured in publications such as Room Magazine (2024), Esse Magazine (2022) and were featured on the cover and interviewed for the book “Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the Classroom” (2022), and they were also the winner of SAAG (Southern Alberta Art Gallery) 2019 Writing prize. She actively engages in public dialogue through lectures, workshops and panels, including recent talks at the University of Toronto (2024), Emerson College (2023) and Weber State University (2022).
View Julia Rose's work here.
See Dye workshop by Julia Rose.
Lauchlan Reid
I am an illustrator, fine artist and educator based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. As a founding member of art/illustration collective Team Macho, my work spans multiple genres and media and can found in private collections across North America.
My solo artwork focuses on a reinterpretation and subversion of the traditions of Western European oil painting and casts a critical eye at the ideas of nostalgia and dominance in the historical and artistic traditions often taken for granted in the mainstream.
As an educator and materials expert, my focus lies in encouraging artists to look past accepted convention and engage with materials and content in ways that create a meaningful and personal connection in their work.
View Lauchie's work here!
See Making Oil paint workshop by Lauchlan!
PEOPLE
Hello! We are OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab! The lab is a space and community for artists and designers to conduct, create and disseminate new knowledge in the area of material colour research.
Developed in collaboration by Nicole Collins (Associate Professor, Faculty of Art), Julia Rose Sutherland, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Design (MAAD-Textiles) and the Faculty of Art in Indigenous Visual Culture and Lauchlan Reid (Associate Professor, Faculty of Design), our focus on sustainability includes aspiring to be plastic-free; health & safety centered for the land, the community and the artist; ethical foraging practice; renewable colour sources and using what we have including waste-stream materials.
OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab